The effect of a patient education program on emergency room use for inner-city children with asthma.
An educational program for children with asthma designed to reduce emergency room (ER) use enrolled all eligible children (n = 253 primarily low-income Black) within a health maintenance organization (HMO) who had used the hospital or ER for asthma during the pre-enrollment period and randomized them into two groups. Twenty-four of the experimental group patients had 55 ER visits and 18 of the control patients had 39 ER visits during the first 12 months post-intervention. This program did not achieve its goal.
Shields
M C
MC
Department of Medicine, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60616.
Griffin
K W
KW
McNabb
W L
WL
D001741:Black or African American; D001249:Asthma; D002641:Chicago; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations; D006296:Health Services; D006300:Health Services Misuse; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011204:Poverty Areas; D011897:Random Allocation